Copyright: Reuters
Putin was speaking for about two hours, covering a range of key issues.
But there was one name he refused to mention – Alexei Navalny – Putin’s most prominent critic.
Navalny’s death in a Russian Arctic penal colony earlier this month sparked a global outpouring of tributes and anti-Putin demonstrations, with his supporters convinced his death was a political assassination.
Hundreds of people were detained in Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities for laying flowers in his memory.
Navalny will be buried in Moscow on Friday. He was seen as a threat by the Kremlin for his ability to bring large numbers of protesters to the streets to rail against the government.
In 2017, he was barred from standing in the general election and his organisations were banned by the Russian state.
In 2020, Navalny collapsed on a flight over Siberia. He was rushed for treatment in Germany where tests proved he had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
The Kremlin denied any involvement, although Putin admitted that the state was keeping Navalny under surveillance.
Navalny returned to Moscow in 2021. He was immediately detained.
He died under circumstances yet to be fully established, but his widow Yulia Navalnaya insists that Putin is responsible.
